Pathos
by ethereal damsel
Summary: Two years have come and gone. Some of us are forced not to wear our hearts on our sleeves. Some of us are attempting to redeem ourselves. And some of us remember that cursed sensation which divides our hearts. Love. SasuOC
1. Chapter 1

a note from the desk of ethereal damsel

Greetings, readers:3 This is the new arc to my fic _Catalyst_ (it takes place approximately two years later). You may want to read _Catalyst _first, as this chapter contains tons of spoilers regarding it. But as some of you might not care or aren't reading this at all, all I can say is, "Enjoy!"

It may take a while for me to update. This is because until now, I've only been watching the Naruto anime. As the anime is now in FillerLand, I need to read the new arc of the manga because it follows the basic storyline of my fics. Just FYI...

_Though I am young and cannot tell_

_Either what Love or Death is well,_

_Yet I have heard they both bear darts_

_And both do aim at human hearts._

-Ben Jonson

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. The only characters I own are Kanzaki Kaya and her relations, Kirei and assorted children and adults from the Village Hidden in the Clouds, and Aoyama Kiyoshi.

* * *

Motes of dust swirled in the shafts of sunlight piercing the leafy canopy of the forests of Konoha. Day was just breaking on the distant horizon and lighting up the grassy knolls and meads of Fire Country. The birds commenced to sing and the flowers shyly unfurled their petals. 

A stag bounded out of the bushes at the peak of a rocky crag. It was entirely bronze in hue, except for the white boots on each leg that shone like purest quartz, and had a great rack of antlers. Astride its back there was a girl with long chestnut–colored hair in a loose plait down her back, secured by a Konoha hitai-ate. As she surveyed the peaceful land before her, her steely-blue eyes shone with pure joy.

The stag seemed to share her happiness, for it pawed restlessly at the ground, eager to leap into the fields of this grassy country. The girl leaned closer to the stag and whispered into one of its velvety ears. Its solemn brown eyes brightened, and it leapt from the crag and into the meadow far below, the girl clinging tightly to its neck.

High above the stag and his companion, there flew a great bird. It too carried a girl, this one with gingery hair pulled back in a ponytail and pale yellow eyes. She was nestled among its jade-colored feathers, scrutinizing the vast green landscape. With a knowing smile, she flew the bird downward onto a smooth knoll.

The stag loped up to the knoll, and both girls dismounted from their animal companions.

"Well, here we are," said the girl with the gingery hair.

"Yes…" said the other, looking across the plains with a pensive expression on her face. "We're home."

* * *

Hatake Kakashi stood idly on the wooden planks of the village bridge, flipping nonchalantly through the pages of yet another of his naughty little novels. For once, he was the one awaiting someone's arrival. Two someones, in fact. 

His students of many years, Kanzaki Kaya and Kirei, were due back from another year-long bout of training and missions. Nearly two years had passed since they had found Kirei, abandoned by the Akatsuki. She had become a Konoha ninja and supplied the village with invaluable information about the inner workings of the Akatsuki.

The very day Kirei had arrived in Konoha, Uchiha Sasuke had left it. Kakashi had known, even then, that Kaya had loved Sasuke. She had loved him ever since the day he had, in his way, consoled her when she was mourning her parents' deaths. And Kakashi was not certain that her love was unrequited. Sasuke had treated Kaya differently than the other members of Team 7. One day, when Kaya was kidnapped by a pair of missing-nin, he had not even waited for permission from his Sensei, Kakashi himself, to go after her. And after he left, Kaya had told Kakashi about an ominous conversation the two of them had had in which Sasuke had made her promise not to follow him if he were to "fall into darkness".

After his departure, Kaya had never been quite the same. Though she had always been quiet and a little timid, now she was more taciturn than ever, almost aloof. And she had stopped spouting poetry the few times she did speak. She silently went about her duties as a Chuunin, and trained diligently. She was still as gentle as she had ever been, but she seemed to have successfully purged herself of her habit of wearing her heart on her sleeve.

Suddenly, Kakashi heard the familiar patter of hoofs on the dusty forest path.

"Kakashi-sensei!" Kaya cried as she approached her old teacher. "We're home!" Kirei swooped down on her bird and gracefully alighted on the bridge.

"Yo," said Kirei, grinning cheekily. The two girls dismounted and their summons vanished in a puff of smoke.

"You two have grown since the last time I saw you," he replied matter-of-factly.

"Kakashi-sensei, it's so good to see you," said Kaya breathlessly. She was smiling, something Kakashi hadn't seen her do in a long time.

"It's good to see you too." All of a sudden, there was a rustle among some bushes off the side of the road.

"You two always stray too far ahead," a voice said grumpily. "No regard for authority whatsoever…" A relatively short woman of approximately the same age as Kakashi emerged from the thicket. She had wild purple hair and dark, mischievous eyes.

"Long time, no see, Kakashi!" she said.

"Hello, Anko," said Kakashi before turning to Kirei and Kaya. "Naruto has returned from his travels with Jiraiya. I imagine you'll want to see him?"

"Yes, of course," Kaya replied. "It's been so long."

"Why don't you just invite the whole of Team 7, Kakashi?" suggested Anko.

"Alright. Perhaps we can go to Ichira—"

"No, we can eat at my house!" Anko interjected. "Dango for everyone, on the house!"

"Very well, Anko." Kakashi realized that there was nothing for it. Anko's mind was made up.

"Off to apartment 12B!" proclaimed Anko.


	2. Maboroshi

A bleak sun was rising over Hidden Grass. Its pale face shone weakly through the oppressive fog that clung clammily to the approaching dawn, feebly illuminating the silver meadow that encompassed the village. On the lip of the meadow stood a lone figure, shrouded temporarily by the ephemeral wisps of mist now dissipating in the effulgence of the dawn.

It was a young man. He was a forbidding figure, tall and gaunt and wan. Half of his face was obscured by a clinging black cloth, but one could clearly see his icy blue eyes and unkempt fawn hair. He was clothed in a yukata of scarlet and gold and he bore upon his back two rather cumbersome-looking katanas.

Slowly, he began to make his way down towards the village. The wisps of mist had nearly all dispersed now and the sun shone ever more brightly. The man finally came to the outskirts of the village. From there, he headed towards the inn. Upon his arrival, the innkeeper, a scruffy man with a surly look about him, glared at him warily.

"And who might you be?" he questioned the young man.

"One who seeks lodging within this inn," replied the young man calmly.

The innkeeper scowled at his reply. "If you will not honor me with a name, I should like to know your business," he said irascibly.

"My business is my own."

"Very well, very well…so long as you bear me or my lodgers no hostility, you are welcome here, quite welcome…"

And so, the young man strode up the stairs to his lodgings.

That night, there came a scream from the street below the inn.

"My child! My child!" shrieked a woman, her face white as a sheet in the darkness. "He's taken my child!" She wrung her hands and took shuddering, shallow breaths as she flew in a nervous frenzy up and down the street. In her anxiety, she tripped over her own feet and fell sobbing to the ground.

Suddenly, at her side, was the young man.

"Who? Who has taken your child?" he asked of the sobbing woman.

"I don't know!" she cried. "It was so dark and—"

"Which way did he go?"

"That way," she replied, gesturing in the direction from which the young man had come. He quickly stooped to help her up and then ran in the direction which the woman had gestured towards, his scarlet yukata billowing out behind him.

He quickly reached the culprit and thrust his black-clad form upon the ground.

"I know your kind," he said venomously. "You are one of the Yuurei, the Specters, the child-snatchers. You take children from their villages and give them to other villages who hold them for ransom in order to collect secrets from the child's village, while you collect the bounty." The man said nothing. The kidnapped child had scrambled off to one side.

"And I know you," the man said fearfully. "You are the one they call Maboroshi, the Phantom."

"I am indeed. Were I in my right mind, I would kill you." He paused. "However, I am not in my right mind, and therefore, I shall leave you here to be dealt with however the authority in this village decides best."

So he trussed up the Yuurei and left the village.


End file.
